We are almost there. This week, the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB) have confirmed that Latvia is fully ready to join Eurozone on January 1, 2014. And even though the final decision regarding the currency of Latvia is still expected to be made by EU Finance Ministers, it is unlikely that it will conceptually differ from the opinion of EC an ECB.

A signal for the region

June 5, 2013 could very much end up becoming part of Latvia’s history as the day the report about Latvia’s completion of all of the convergence criteria was unveiled.

“Latvia’s joining of Eurozone will become a strong signal for the region, for the monetary union and global markets. This step will underline the fact that a stable policy yields actual results and reforms pay for themselves in the end”, – European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said.

Latvian Finance Minister Andris Vilks has noted that Latvia stands first in the EU in terms of Maastricht criteria completion: “We need to keep to a pragmatic approach, avoid giving into populism and maintain a stable fiscal policy.”

In spite of the exploratory indexes, the ECB warns about serious inflation pressure Latvia could face in the future.

The final decision about Latvia’s joining of Eurozone will made on the EU Ministers Council meeting on July 7.

The bubbles that are used to scare us

If one is to descend form the European heights to the “sinful land”, he can find many interesting things here. For example – the research of the Latvian State Land Service that was unveiled this week. It shows that wealthy CIS citizens contribute to the development of Latvia’s emerging real estate projects, but do not influence the price of the objects. This survey has demonstrated that the attacks of right wing powers on the investors visa programs, as part of which foreigners of third countries are offered Latvian residence permits, are baseless. Their favourite arguments is this: wealthy foreigners are enlarging the bubble, while locals are unable to afford an apartment or house because of their activity.

Authors of the survey state: the most notable effect of the rising foreign capital was the livening of the construction industry. “With the beginning of recession, many new projects were frozen. Foreigners’ money has allowed developers to continue the projects. It is possible that some of the new projects would never see the light of day if not for foreign investors”, – as stated in the document.

The aforementioned foreign interest is mostly concentrated in the segments where local residents are active the least: new expensive houses and apartments and exclusive housing in the centre of Riga and Jurmala. And even though the values are going up in some places, the state specialists do not see any signs for concern.

The bubbles that are used by political forces to frighten the country’s population are always part of short-term speculative transactions, the Lad Service concludes.

Every cloud has a silver lining

While some Saeima deputies rocking the boat, others are trying to introduce a constructive approach to things and solve important problems in the economy. Deputies of Unity and Reform Party have prepared amendments to the Insolvency Law. These amendments are called to ease the convergence of obligations of problematic companies in their shares.

The idea first appeared along with the legal protection measure for Liepājas metalurgs. The goal of the planned amendments is to allow creditors of the company that is undergoing legal protection to reduce its main capital (up until now, they could only increase it).

According to the authors of the amendments, the problem of current regulation is that it significantly reduces the ability to use this helpful instrument in resolving financial difficulties. Seeing as how the situation at LM is getting out of hand by the minute, the terms of preparing amendments are quite short: the draft of the document is due to be reviewed by the working group next Monday.

At least the ITs are doing well

Meanwhile, as part of a trade mission, Latvian IT companies have departed for the Silicon Valley in California this week. The event is organized by the Latvian Investment and Development Agency in cooperation with StartupLatvia. This is the second visit of Latvian hightech start-ups to USA in 2013. The first one was carried out this winter and was quite successful: negotiations with potential American investors are ongoing.

Five Latvian IT companies have departed for USA: TWA RIGA, Arcana, Riga’s branch of Froont, 1LIFE and the Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration.

As part of the mission, Latvian entrepreneurs will learn of the style and specifics of the business culture of the Silicon Valley. They also plan to meet with representatives of large corporations, including Google and Skype.

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit this Wednesday to Kaliningrad, the westernmost point of Russia, but the reports about his trip in the Russian enclave and over the border in Lithuania were strikingly different.

Latvian airBaltic airline carried 393,312 passengers in July 2017, which is 21% more than the same period last year. The number of passengers carried by airBaltic remains the highest it has ever been in the airline’s history, BNN was informed by the company.

U.S. Air Force Brigade’s Task Force Phoenix helicopters, which are stationed in Latvia as part of Atlantic Resolve operation, will be performing low-altitude flights from 16:00 to 18:00 from Lielvarde to Dobele on Friday, 18 August.

An Indian citizen travelling from Moscow on a bus was caught at Terehovo border control point in Latvia for presenting officers a fake EU family member’s resident card. No criminal process was launched. The person returned to the country he was travelling from.

From 21 August onward, Rural Support Service plans to start accepting applications for projects to receive support from European Maritime and Fisheries Fund’s action plan for development of fisheries in 2014-2020 as part of projects Innovation, Productive Investments in Aquaculture and Fishing and Aquaculture project processing.

As the Estonian Ministry of Finance wishes to boost the reputation and brand of the Baltic country's public sector, it has announced a procurement tender aimed at preparing an action plan for reaching these goals.

Because of Swedbank’s planned IT modernization work scheduled for the night to Thursday, 17 August, there may be short term problems with payment card and internet banking functionality, the bank warns.

If he became chairman of Unity, Economy Minister Arvils Aseradens would mobilize democratic forces to prevent the possibility of either Aivars Lembergs or Nils Usakovs becoming prime ministers, Aseradens said in an interview to 900 seconds programme of LNT.

The co-founder of the U.S. computer software firm Microsoft, Bill Gates, has allocated to charity 4.6 billion U.S. dollars (3.9 billion euros), which is the philanthropist's highest donation since the year 2000.

Latvia and Russia will exchange 7,000 universal permits for international cargo transports in 2017. This will be the largest universal permit volume in the past 15 years, as reported by Road Directorate.